The Muslim community in the UK refuses to embrace female former prisoners, report says

To be a female former prisoner in the UK’s Muslim community is very challenging. According to a report conducted by Muslim experts in the criminal justice system, Muslim women who have served prison sentences are «shunned» by their families in the UK.

Muslim families in the UK tend to forgive male former prisoners, but find it hard to accept their daughters who have been to prison, the Guardian reports.

«Within our community being a woman caught up in crime is one of the most unacceptable things that can happen to a family, regardless of the reasons», female convicts said in a report by the Muslim Women in Prison rehabilitation project.

Some of these women «may be deprived of contact with their families and members of the community, having been left abandoned and cast aside for bringing shame and dishonor to their reputation in the community», the authors of the report added.

The study was based on 17 former convicts who come from different ethnic and cultural Muslim backgrounds : Arab, white British, Pakistani, Indian and Kashmiri. It also recorded their experiences as prisoners and the obstacles they had to deal with «during and post prison life».

The report concluded that an active approach must be implemented to help Muslim women be embraced back into society.